Newsletter

August 28th, 2013

Losing Lily

Lily was here last Sunday afternoon, getting a few things organized for the upcoming week. No one expected her, it was this nice little treat, and before she could get the work she had come to do done, she had to make the rounds, giving everyone their turn to hug her. Why was it so special for Lily to come in on a Sunday, you ask? Well, friends, the sad truth is that Lily doesn’t work here anymore. The business she came in to attend to was about finishing up the last details of handing the job of front desk manager over to her successor, before going in on Monday for the first day of her new job.

This wasn’t a surprise departure, of course. Lily has been working her butt off for a long time and we always knew she meant to move out into the world. She’s at First 5 now, an organization devoted to, well, the first five years of the lives of children in the community. She’s preparing her grad school applications, with ideas of going into teaching, but also of continuing on with Chicano Studies. Unsure as she is of the specifics, it’s clear to her that non-profit, community outreach needs to be a part of her range of experience, and so she left us.

We’re so proud and it’s just awful. She grew up here with us. We watched her become the intelligent young woman she is now and she’s only going to get better, except we won’t get to be her daily reference point anymore. And for those of you who remember that her mother works here, or who know that she has so many friends here and assume she’s going to keep hanging around here even if she doesn’t work here, listen to this: She’s applying to UC Santa Barbara! Oh, why must love be so painful?